


Anti Midas

by ChibiDream



Category: Original Work
Genre: Depression, Immortality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-10
Updated: 2020-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:54:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27009940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChibiDream/pseuds/ChibiDream
Summary: (This was a really short story that I made for a type of writing competition/presentation. Thought I'd post it for anyone who might be interested.)
Kudos: 1





	Anti Midas

The night was cold atop the Walthrow tower and snow covered the concrete ledge that wrapped around the building. Despite this, I came to recollect my thoughts and, more importantly, to attempt the jump one more time before the end of the year.

I was reminded how painful it was to be immortal.

When I was granted the dream of most individuals —to live without death holding my hand, to live without pain, to outlive everyone around me— it was with the misconception that I understood the life I would be forced to cope with. Forever written on my hands, the words “You, and anything you touch, will have their life preserved,” stared back at me under the light of the city below me. Whoever created this cursed gift must have known how stoic humans could become in the face of a loved one’s death. I know now that the designer intended me to choose between two ends. If watching loved ones die didn’t break me, not being able to save them would.

I leaned over, closer to the edge of the tower, and felt the wind pushing against my back in an attempt to push me off. I’ve never seen the weather so eager to see me jump. How many times have I tried? It seems I don’t remember.

All I know is that two jumps led to countless more. The first night I jumped, Marion and I sat on the rooftop and watched the city lights around us. She leaned against me gently with her head on my shoulder, the midnight air frosting her breath alongside the snowfall that had started hours ago.

“Are you getting cold?” I asked her, and she nodded. “Maybe you should be getting home then?”

She sat up, seemingly in shock. “No, I’ll stay with you longer.” Her words came out panicked and she explained herself preemptively. “It’s fine. It’s just my dad again.”

Bruises, I thought, I should question her for bruises, but I decided not to push the subject. “You can stay at my place again. Head back home in the morning. He should be gone for work by then.”

“Yeah, that’d be better…” I scooted myself off the wall and picked up my bag before she motioned to stop me. “Wait, I don’t want to take the stairs,” She said quietly but firmly.

I looked at her, lost at her statement, watching her legs nervously as they appeared closer to the edge than before. “I-I’m sorry?” I stuttered out.

“You can take us down quicker can’t you? It’s not getting much warmer up here and it’ll be fifteen minutes till we climb down.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I replied, but she pressed harder.

“You told me you could protect people if you’re in contact with them, so it should be fine, right?”

I silently judged her sincerity, as this was the first time she expressed anything other than skepticism toward the concept of my immortality, but in the end, I relented.

We stood up on the ledge, hand in hand, and I held onto hers for dear life. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, but she was calm. A few seconds passed, my heart was tearing my fingers apart, pumping blood with a force that I felt should’ve made my hand burst open. When she yelled out “jump” I heard it through the muffled filter of my own fears, and I fell instead. Not realizing she was launching herself off the building, I pulled down on her midway through her leap, and she grabbed onto me, scared of the sudden jerk in motion. She recovered quickly, and her voice turned to ecstatic screams halfway through our descent.

“The city is so beautiful like this!” She cheered, but the rush of air made it difficult to hear anything more.

During the drop I turned to face upward, so when we hit the ground it was without warning to me. I closed my eyes on instinct when my back hit the ground, and when I opened them up I saw a dazed face above my head. Her eyes darted around her in confusion and then looked back at me in, what I now know to be, disappointment.

“Let’s go,” She told me, in a tone I can only describe as defeated.

A month later, I was running up the mesh stairs of the Walthrow tower, terrified of being too late. I could see her ascending as well, but she couldn’t hear me from so far down. 

Oh how the air thickens when we’re hurried. Each step seemed to take longer than the last as I desperately hoped she would wait for me. Fifteen flights, then twenty, I could almost see over the walls of the building. When I did, it was to see her standing on the edge, frozen still and staring down into the abyss.

I wonder what she saw.

I rushed to her, scared that she might fall in before I could grab her. “It’ll be fine,” I told myself. The words cycled through my veins, filling me with a fleeting faith as I reached out to her.

But her fall started. I saw her body tilt toward the end, and I screamed out, “Marion!” She only turned enough to glance at me. Our eyes connected for only a moment. She was scared. Her hand stretched out toward me just as she fell behind the ledge. Without a second thought I jumped the wall. The concrete floor flew away beneath me and the streets became visible once more. I started to dive toward her, reaching down and trying to grip onto something, anything. But halfway down, we both knew I couldn’t make it.

She looked up at me and simply mouthed “I’m sorry,” two words I felt I should be crying out to her instead.

Our eyes stayed locked the rest of the way down.

She never knew we hit the ground.

That was twelve years ago. Every year I tell myself this will be the last I grieve. Funny how people lie to themselves. 

I stared up at the clear black sky as the world turned to midnight and I laughed lightly to myself. Alone, fighting against the city lights, was a small star in the distance, the light at the end of my tunnel vision. One of these days I’ll defy gravity, but for now, I’ll continue falling, falling forever, deeper into the abyss. Falling is easier anyway.

So I stood up, feet against the edge and eyes closed. Thinking of nothing, hoping for nothing, and when the silence became overwhelming, I jumped to hear the wind rushing past my ears, to drown out the abyss. Someday, someone will do what I couldn’t. Someday, someone will catch me. But until then...

I hit the ground.

I lived.

I’ll try again tomorrow.


End file.
